Emergency in Bordeaux

Bob Brown has been a great friend to me on board Insignia since day one on this world cruise. He watches out for everyone, including me both on board and excursions from the ship, all around the world. Bob has yet to take the elevator at any time on the ship. He usually races us on the elevator to the 10th Deck.

He and another passenger, Betsy have hit it off on this cruise and have been a couple for months now. Bob planned on moving from his Queens rent-controlled apartment to her ranch style property in Florida when the cruise was over.  They have already booked another cruise together for next year.  They are the cutest romance on the ship.

This morning, Caesar, one of my room stewards rushed in to tell me Bob was outside on the pier, here in Bordeaux France, being put into an ambulance. Caesar knew we are friends and he had just assisted carrying him out to the ambulance. When I got outside Betsy was there, almost in a state of shock. She lost her husband last year on this very ship on a world cruise, to a heart attack.

They had breakfast together and Bob looked pale. He got up and then sat down quickly but was unresponsive.  Betsy could not find a pulse. Fortunately a passenger at the next table was a doctor. He found  a pulse and the ship's doctor arrived and got an ambulance in route.

Betsy rode in the ambulance. Judy and I rushed behind them in a taxi. Actually the cab company said a pick-up would be over an hour. We flagged down an occupied cab and got them to agree to pick us up after they made their drop off.  Less than 10 minutes later we were on our way.

We found Bob and Betsy at Sane Augustine Hospital acute emergency room.  They took Bob to the Cath Lab and less than 20 minutes later they had installed two stints. He was tired but, so much better.  His blood was flowing well and his blood/oxygen numbers were in the high 90 percents.

After they ran us out, we went back to the ship to exchange information with the ship's doctor and grab some lunch. When we got back, Bob had had some sleep and was looking even better and there was talk of a few days observation in the hospital. 

When we first got back we walked right in and several nurses waved us back out saying in broken English that they hadn't had time to ring the bell yet. We didn't know what that meant but, we backed out. Sitting on the benches out in the hall the automatic doors kept opening and closing repeatedly without anyone going in or leaving. As Judy was wondering out loud why the doors kept opening I noticed that she kept tilting her head back and pushing the large button on the wall behind her for the doors.

As we were leaving, Betsy thought she was pressing a button to open the automatic doors but, instead turned out all the lights in the emergency room.  Nurses came running from everywhere. 

We we got back to the ship, we went by the infirmary and talked to ship's doctor who we had given the cardiologist cellphone number for him the call, earlier. We leaned that the hospital was probably going to release him to return to the ship tomorrow before we leave.

He'll have to listen to the ship's doctor and walk the track on the ship for 30 minutes every day. He will also have to generally take it easy and modify his diet.  Betsy said she will see to that. So, in the end, good news. We are just glad it happened in port, and one with a good hospital. It would have been tragic had we been in the middle of the Atlantic or one of the third world countries we visited.

We've had several medical emergencies on this cruise. It is to be expected on a cruise with this age group. Once, an appendicitis case required up to hit top speed approaching Australia to get close enough to shore for a helicopter to make an emergency pick-up. There were several broken bones and another heart attack with stints in which the passenger was able to re board a couple of weeks later. I would have bet on me being the one going to the hospital on this trip instead of Bob. I'm very glad Bob is going to be okay.